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doowopper
Aloha
USA
6 Posts |
 Posted - 02/16/2009 : 2:10:50 PM
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I am a relatively new tenor ukulele player. I would like to learn how to play slide ukulele using a finger bottleneck. As I understand it, playing slide guitar/ukulele also requires retuning the instrument but I don't know much about it.
Do you know of any sources for learning to play slide ukulele - on the web, books, etc?
Thanks.
Richard
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 3:51:11 PM
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Since the relationship of the 3 highest Uke strings is the same as the 3 highest guitar strings, any tab for bottleneck guitar shoul work, as long as you stay to those strings.You'll be in a different key than a guitarist would be in, but that shouldn't matter for learning purposes. Lower your first string one full tone from A to G, and you'll have an open C major chord. If you can find a book that teaches slack key Uke, you should be able to adapt the arangements to slide playing. You may need a bottleneck blues guitar book for the mechanics of using the slide, unless you have a slide playing friend to coach you on that aspect. try searching www.elderly.com for uke books. They have more than any other store I know of. I'm not sure if any are about slide playing, but it's worth a look. Welcome to the 'Patch.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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Pops
Lokahi
USA
387 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 3:57:36 PM
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Richard,
The vast majority of bottleneck guitar players tune to an open chord, G or D (or up to A and E) respectively and they use steel strings. Theoretically it will still work on a 'ukulele with non-steel strings, but I doubt it will really sound very good at all. And unless you have one of the more unusual 'ukuleles that can handle steel strings don't put them on your uke or your could damage it.
You'll also need a 'ukulele with a high enough action so you're slide isn't making all sorts of extraneous noises.
--Mark
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 4:40:11 PM
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For a variety of reasons, you will get almost no volume and no sustain playing the short nylon strings with a slide. Is there a reason to play bottle neck ukulele when it sounds so beautiful plucked and strummed?
Jesse |
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hikabe
Lokahi
USA
358 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 02:16:27 AM
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Are you nuts! It is forbidden to use a bottle neck slide on an ukulele!!! If you have no respect for years of traditional ukulele playing, you might as well plug it into an amp and play Johnny Winters and Ben Harper stuff.
If you do, tune the A string down to G for a C major tuning. I call that the Makai Slack Tuning because it is "open C". This is the closest you'll get to what people like Johnny, Ben, Bonnie Rait, Feets Rodgers and others are doing. You can also pick with the free fingers like Duane Allman. Other tunings are possible but with only four strings it is very limited. For more of a hawaiian sound, don't retune it. The normal ukulele tuning of GCEA is the CMaj6 chord. The 6th chord is a favorite among slide players. With a little delay or reverb you can get a good sound from most instruments.
You can slide a chopstick or something under the strings near your nut area to lift the strings higher so you don't bang the frets.
Good luck finding books on slide uke. I don't think there is any. Learn from guitar or laptop steel song books. Troublemaker!
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Stay Tuned... |
Edited by - hikabe on 02/17/2009 02:52:20 AM |
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Baritone
Lokahi
USA
136 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 03:24:11 AM
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Just do 'em, Richard! Wen jamming with the guys at the jail (back bout 1955), one guy had resonator/banjo uke. He'd play like Muddy Waters with glass over his pinky and do the harmonics, twangy thing. He also had a four string guitar and baritone uke which he'd "adjust". We'd follow along in Key of G; which means he'd alu that first string.
Just go get em!
Herb |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 5:26:05 PM
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I searched my King James Bible, and even searched Strongs Concordance, and could find nothing that said it was forbidden to play ukulele with a bottleneck. Also, there's no 'S' in Johnny Winter. But it's YOUR uke, play it how YOU want. Pay no attention to ranting & raving. (Unless I'm the one ranting & raving.)
As for changing strings, did your uke come with steel or nylon? It will make a difference in sound, but try what you got and see how it sounds. As Pops said, steel can do damage on a uke(or guitar) built for nylon. If you like the effect, but don't like the sound, you might want to find a steel string model and see how that sounds.
NEWS FLASH!!! We got 3 Northeast Ohio posters on the same thread! I'm calling this a kani ka pila, just because I can. Film at 11. You Buckeyes stay watching for a real kani in our neck of the woods soon.
We now return you to our regular thread.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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hikabe
Lokahi
USA
358 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2009 : 11:46:11 AM
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Paul,
Not in the bible. It's in Finnegans Wake between lines 255 and 256! I rant you not! |
Stay Tuned... |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2009 : 2:02:00 PM
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Whack fol the diddle, dance to your partner
Welt the floor your Trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told Ye,
Lot's of fun at Finnegan's wake!
That Finnegan's Wake? I suspect the neck broke off the bottle when they threw it around the parlor.(Parlour?)The Clancy's musta skipped that verse on my record. Well if it ain't in the bible, it oughta be in a Clancy Bros. record.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 2:46:46 PM
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I play bottle neck uke on "A-11" on my new uke CD: "Funtime Uke-a-Rama. (Which all you guys are ignoring.... is it something I said???) You can hear a sound sample on my webpage.
I play in the one Hiram mentioned-- sorta like an open G guitar ("Spanish" tuning, if you are a blues player, Taropatch if you play slack) but it's open C on the uke. I use a Gen-U-Wine bottle neck from Eric Park... don't know if he still makes 'em, but they are the same as Bonny Rait uses. And yes, it's a real bottle-neck.
Any slide will do-- put it on your pinky or ring finger and slide it around. Try to drag a finger behind the slide to damp the ugly noises that come from the back side of it. Hold it 90 degrees to the strings and stop when you get right over the fret.
As Paul said, it's just like guitar, only without the nyaa.
(Ask Paddy Maloney what that means. He's read Finnegan's Wake. Not to be confused with "Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" And most certainly not to be confused with "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?" Though the latter is closer to the mark.)
Slide on...
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 3:33:37 PM
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Read Finnegan's Wake? I only listened to the record, and waybe sung it a time or two. Is there another Finnegan?
I also like "The Sick Note" (Why Paddy's Not At Work Today).
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 12:18:04 PM
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quote:
Read Finnegan's Wake? I only listened to the record, and waybe sung it a time or two. Is there another Finnegan?
"Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce is probably the least-read masterpiece in the English language. "Ulysses" is a cakewalk in comparison. I've started it dozens of times; maybe with a rainy day month and a barrel of Scotch I might finished it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_wake
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Momi
Lokahi
402 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 12:30:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark
"Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce is probably the least-read masterpiece in the English language.
I'm sure more people have read ABOUT it than read it, me included. Stream of consciousness is not my style; puddle of consciousness is more like it (credited to G. Porter). |
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 2:26:25 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Momi
Stream of consciousness is not my style; puddle of consciousness is more like it (credited to G. Porter).
(And "borrowed" from M. Mull.) |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 5:28:50 PM
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I'll stick with the song. I tried to read Dostoyevski's "The Idiot" while I was in the Army, but couldn't keep the cast of thousands separated in my mind. I never did finish it. Shoulda wrote home for the Cliff's Notes.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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